Alcatel-Lucent unveils cloud-based developer platform

Includes set of developer tools, virtual sandbox and application distribution

Alcatel-Lucent has unveiled a cloud-based developer platform and a new business model, which provides service providers and enterprises with tools that enable partners and third-party developers to build, test, manage and distribute applications across networks, including television, broadband internet and mobile.

Built on application exposure suite, the new platform includes a set of developer tools, a virtual sandbox and application distribution to address the developer lifecycle, support service providers and enterprises with an API and application offering.

The company said that the cloud-based platform allows service providers to securely expose network APIs to more developers that allows service providers and developers to jointly facilitate the creation and delivery of new applications.

In addition, the company also unveiled two new developer tools, a virtual sandbox and dashboard, to support the adoption of API bundle model. The virtual sandbox provides developers an environment to simulate, test and verify new applications across service provider networks for delivery across various platforms.

According to Alcatel-Lucent, the virtual sandbox provides testing ground to accelerate development, distribution and deployment of new services. The dashboard offers developers real-time business analysis of application activity, API statistics, costs and the revenue potential of applications.

Johnson Agogbua, head of application enablement solutions for Alcatel-Lucent, said: We’re in this to help everyone in the application ecosystem make money. The research we’ve done with more than 1,000 developers shows that the bundled approach to aggregation could drive up an API’s value by 200-300% versus its value on its own.

“It also shows that developers want to participate in API revenue sharing and have access to service provider analytics.